Nicola Faulconbridge, assistant chief constable for local policing, said: ""This is the second day of a two-day proactive operation to target those who seek to carry out county lines and drug dealing activity in the county, and also to target anybody who believes it is safe to carry a weapon in this county.

"We want to send a very clear message that we will take proactive action to seek them out and to ensure we keep Kent a safe place for our citizens to live, work and visit.

A man and woman were arrested and £10,000 worth of designer bags seized from Tonbridge Road in Maidstone (12633556)

"We are at that really, really early stage of that search and we will be able to update you later with the results of what we find.

"We have two arrests, a male and a female have been arrested on suspicion of money laundering offences.

"Kent absolutely is a safe place. We have been acknowledge by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services for having the most accurate crime recording level in the county, and we take pride in ensuring we record crimes accurately.

"We want to send a very clear message that we will take proactive action to seek them out and to ensure we keep Kent a safe place for our citizens to live, work and visit..." Nicole Faulconbridge

"Knife crime under that category comes any possession of any bladed object, or any article such as a dart, would also be recorded as knife crime, so some of the rises around our accuracy in crime recording.

Some of the cash already seized in Kent Police raids on Wednesday (12620614)

"But it's also around the proactive approach that we take. We have a dedicated team out every day of the week seeking out individuals who seek to cause harm within our communities. Then, on top of that, we do two days of action such as we did yesterday and today in order to target those even further so we ensure Kent does absolutely stay a safe place to live, work and visit.

"We want to send a clear message to our communities that we will do everything in our power to keep you safe, but we also want to send a very clear message to criminals in this county and beyond, and we are working very closely with all of our neighbouring forces, to send that clear message to criminals that Kent is not a place where they want to come and operate."